User Tags versus Subject Headings: Can User-Supplied Data Improve Subject Access to Library Collections?

• Published in: Library resources & technical services Vol. 53; no. 3; pp. 174 - 184
• Main Author: ROLLA, Peter J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL American Library Association 01.07.2009
• Subjects: Access control; Descriptive cataloguing; Evaluation; Exact sciences and technology; Formats. Codification. Conversion; Formats. Markup languages. Codification. Conversion; Information and communication sciences; Information and document structure and analysis; Information processing and retrieval; Information science. Documentation; Internet; Library materials; Methods; Public access; R&D; Research & development; Sciences and techniques of general use; Searches; Studies; Subject cataloging; Subject cataloging and indexing; Subject heading schemes; Tagging; User generated content; Web sites; United States; User; Subject heading; Collection; Data; Library; Tag; Subject access
• ISSN: 0024-2527; 2159-9610
• DOI: 10.5860/lrts.53n3.174

Some members of the library community, including the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, have suggested that libraries should open up their catalogs to allow users to add descriptive tags to the bibliographic data in catalog records. The website LibraryThing currently permits its members to add such user tags to its records for books and therefore provides a useful resource to contrast with library bibliographic records. A comparison between the LibraryThing tags for a group of books and the library-supplied subject headings for the same books shows that users and catalogers approach these descriptors very differently. Because of these differences, user tags can enhance subject access to library materials, but they cannot entirely replace controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress subject headings. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]